THIS IS MY COUSIN DAVID
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Sorry
Sorry Guys, I have been very Busy, I have been able to post Recaps for SmackDown, Raw, or ECW in the the Past two weeks. New Updates Starting Sunday the 22nd
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Friday, July 6, 2007
Smackdown 7/6/07
A Big Suprise
DALLAS - When Edge began hosting The Cutting Edge, you can be sure he didn’t have the latest edition in mind. After asking Theodore Long for the night off from action, the SmackDown General Manager promised the Rated-R Superstar his biggest guest in The Cutting Edge’s history… and he delivered. Kane surprised the World Heavyweight Champion, tossing the host out of the ring and earning himself a title opportunity at The Great American Bash. (WATCH) Read more on this story…
Looking for a Bash invitation of his own, The Great Khali terrorized everybody in his path, promising not to stop until somebody accepts his open challenge for a match at the pay-per-view. After several of Khali’s attacks, Batista marched to the squared circle and stood eye-to-chest with the Indian giant. The Animal’s acceptance came too late for some, though. Jimmy Wang Yang suffered a double-handed chokeslam, Deuce and Eugene’s match was interrupted as both were attacked, and even a producer was thrown almost through a wall. (WATCH)
Elsewhere on SmackDown, Matt Hardy kicked off the night with a victory over United States Champion Montel Vontavious Porter. The win was anything but easy as both men contributed to one of the most athletic contests our fans have ever seen. With his victory, Hardy may have taken a step closer to becoming a contender for the United States Championship. (WATCH)
In their first match against each other in each of their illustrious careers, Finlay found a way to pick up the win against Ric Flair, beating him at his own dirty game. Hornswoggle tried to interfere and the “Nature Boy” hit him with a vicious chop. When the referee examined the injured leprechaun, however, Finlay struck Flair in the back of the knee with his Shillelagh. Moments later, Flair tapped out to the Celtic Knot.
Jimmy Wang Yang has enjoyed success in the past few months, winning match after match and coming close to earning the Cruiserweight Championship at Vengeance: Night of Champions. When he faced Chris Masters, though, it looked like time for him to ride off into the sunset. The Masterpiece had his way with the redneck rebel, capping the contest with the virtually inescapable Masterlock.
In other action, the Major Brothers made their SmackDown debut with a convincing win. Chuck Palumbo also had success in his first Friday night match when he silenced the cocky Kenny Dykstra.
During a photo shoot, Torrie Wilson told Victoria exactly what she thought of her: the Diva is crazy. The brawling beauties destroyed the set as they clawed at each other until they were pried away, but the rivalry is sure to heat up further.
Watch Friday Night SmackDown at 8/7 CT on The CW Network and find out what develops.
DALLAS - When Edge began hosting The Cutting Edge, you can be sure he didn’t have the latest edition in mind. After asking Theodore Long for the night off from action, the SmackDown General Manager promised the Rated-R Superstar his biggest guest in The Cutting Edge’s history… and he delivered. Kane surprised the World Heavyweight Champion, tossing the host out of the ring and earning himself a title opportunity at The Great American Bash. (WATCH) Read more on this story…
Looking for a Bash invitation of his own, The Great Khali terrorized everybody in his path, promising not to stop until somebody accepts his open challenge for a match at the pay-per-view. After several of Khali’s attacks, Batista marched to the squared circle and stood eye-to-chest with the Indian giant. The Animal’s acceptance came too late for some, though. Jimmy Wang Yang suffered a double-handed chokeslam, Deuce and Eugene’s match was interrupted as both were attacked, and even a producer was thrown almost through a wall. (WATCH)
Elsewhere on SmackDown, Matt Hardy kicked off the night with a victory over United States Champion Montel Vontavious Porter. The win was anything but easy as both men contributed to one of the most athletic contests our fans have ever seen. With his victory, Hardy may have taken a step closer to becoming a contender for the United States Championship. (WATCH)
In their first match against each other in each of their illustrious careers, Finlay found a way to pick up the win against Ric Flair, beating him at his own dirty game. Hornswoggle tried to interfere and the “Nature Boy” hit him with a vicious chop. When the referee examined the injured leprechaun, however, Finlay struck Flair in the back of the knee with his Shillelagh. Moments later, Flair tapped out to the Celtic Knot.
Jimmy Wang Yang has enjoyed success in the past few months, winning match after match and coming close to earning the Cruiserweight Championship at Vengeance: Night of Champions. When he faced Chris Masters, though, it looked like time for him to ride off into the sunset. The Masterpiece had his way with the redneck rebel, capping the contest with the virtually inescapable Masterlock.
In other action, the Major Brothers made their SmackDown debut with a convincing win. Chuck Palumbo also had success in his first Friday night match when he silenced the cocky Kenny Dykstra.
During a photo shoot, Torrie Wilson told Victoria exactly what she thought of her: the Diva is crazy. The brawling beauties destroyed the set as they clawed at each other until they were pried away, but the rivalry is sure to heat up further.
Watch Friday Night SmackDown at 8/7 CT on The CW Network and find out what develops.
Game-Ready Fans Speak out
Game-ready fans speak out
DALLAS – In addition to crowning a new Intercontinental Champion and lining up John Cena’s next challenger for the WWE Championship, Raw’s highlights also included clips from Triple H’s arduous road to recovery from a torn right quadriceps. Although The Game wasn’t there in person, just seeing the 10-time World Champion back on the TitanTron screen had many of our fans at the American Airlines Center buzzing.
“When The Game returns, he’s putting WWE on notice,” predicted Jack Sanhall of Irving, Texas। “Look at what he accomplished after coming back from injury in 2002 — he not only won the WWE Title a fifth time, he became a five-time World Heavyweight Champion as well। There’s no way anyone will stop Triple H from becoming an 11-time World Champion।”
“Those Triple H promos have made my week,” stated Red Oak resident Ann-Marie Nuhaltz. “Now I only need Shawn Michaels to come back too. I’d love to see those two in the ring again.”
No one knows the condition of HBK, who at Judgment Day last May suffered a potential career-ending concussion at the hands — and boot — of Randy Orton. Dallas local Victor Flores thinks that alone should provide extra incentive for the returning Game, who last January tore his right quad while he and Michaels battled Orton and Edge at New Year’s Revolution.
“Personally, I think he should stop off at SmackDown first,” Flores said. “That way, he can kick the crap out of Edge, then go back to Raw and get some revenge against Orton. That ought to be his first priority; let ’em all know that you can’t get away with hurting the Cerebral Assassin or his friends.”
Back in March, Triple H informed WWE।com that his rehabilitation had been progressing so well that he hoped a
SummerSlam return was feasible. Judging from the video shown on Raw Monday night, the Biggest Party of the Summer might become the homecoming site for one of WWE’s greatest Superstars.
“I think Triple H will go after The Champ [Cena],” said Waxahachie-based WWE fan Rod Williams, “but I also want to see him go after some of Raw’s new guys, like Snitsky or Kennedy. Definitely Kennedy; somebody needs to shut that guy up, big-time.”
Good point. So good, in fact, that WWE.com asks Williams how he thinks The Game might fare against Bobby Lashley. “Wow, that would be good,” the teen replied enthusiastically. “Lashley’s one of my favorites, and I hope he’s right about what he said tonight — that he won’t be an uncrowned champion much longer. If Lashley can beat Cena at The Great American Bash, putting him in the ring against Triple H would make a great WWE Title Match…maybe one of the best.”
For now, inside sources either can’t or won’t confirm exactly when Triple H will make his return। However, as the sold-out American Airlines Center crowd demonstrated on Raw Monday night, one thing is certain: Once it is time again to play The Game, our fans are going to enjoy every moment of it।
Get ready with Triple H's King of Kings baseball cap....
DALLAS – In addition to crowning a new Intercontinental Champion and lining up John Cena’s next challenger for the WWE Championship, Raw’s highlights also included clips from Triple H’s arduous road to recovery from a torn right quadriceps. Although The Game wasn’t there in person, just seeing the 10-time World Champion back on the TitanTron screen had many of our fans at the American Airlines Center buzzing.
“When The Game returns, he’s putting WWE on notice,” predicted Jack Sanhall of Irving, Texas। “Look at what he accomplished after coming back from injury in 2002 — he not only won the WWE Title a fifth time, he became a five-time World Heavyweight Champion as well। There’s no way anyone will stop Triple H from becoming an 11-time World Champion।”
“Those Triple H promos have made my week,” stated Red Oak resident Ann-Marie Nuhaltz. “Now I only need Shawn Michaels to come back too. I’d love to see those two in the ring again.”
No one knows the condition of HBK, who at Judgment Day last May suffered a potential career-ending concussion at the hands — and boot — of Randy Orton. Dallas local Victor Flores thinks that alone should provide extra incentive for the returning Game, who last January tore his right quad while he and Michaels battled Orton and Edge at New Year’s Revolution.
“Personally, I think he should stop off at SmackDown first,” Flores said. “That way, he can kick the crap out of Edge, then go back to Raw and get some revenge against Orton. That ought to be his first priority; let ’em all know that you can’t get away with hurting the Cerebral Assassin or his friends.”
Back in March, Triple H informed WWE।com that his rehabilitation had been progressing so well that he hoped a
SummerSlam return was feasible. Judging from the video shown on Raw Monday night, the Biggest Party of the Summer might become the homecoming site for one of WWE’s greatest Superstars.
“I think Triple H will go after The Champ [Cena],” said Waxahachie-based WWE fan Rod Williams, “but I also want to see him go after some of Raw’s new guys, like Snitsky or Kennedy. Definitely Kennedy; somebody needs to shut that guy up, big-time.”
Good point. So good, in fact, that WWE.com asks Williams how he thinks The Game might fare against Bobby Lashley. “Wow, that would be good,” the teen replied enthusiastically. “Lashley’s one of my favorites, and I hope he’s right about what he said tonight — that he won’t be an uncrowned champion much longer. If Lashley can beat Cena at The Great American Bash, putting him in the ring against Triple H would make a great WWE Title Match…maybe one of the best.”
For now, inside sources either can’t or won’t confirm exactly when Triple H will make his return। However, as the sold-out American Airlines Center crowd demonstrated on Raw Monday night, one thing is certain: Once it is time again to play The Game, our fans are going to enjoy every moment of it।
Get ready with Triple H's King of Kings baseball cap....
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
ECW- 7/3/07
DALLAS – ECW World Champion Johnny Nitro couldn’t stop smiling as he emerged from the locker room. His long brown locks were still drenched in sweat from his hard-fought victory earlier that night over legendary ECW Original Tommy Dreamer – an opponent that his chief rival, CM Punk, had chosen for him in a “Pick Your Poison”-themed ECW on Sci Fi. In turn, Nitro’s handpicked “poison” for Punk was Kevin Thorn – and he had just watched the Straightedge Superstar impale the powerful vampire.
Nitro seemed impressed, but his smile slowly faded as his eyes locked on Punk. The No. 1 contender to the ECW World Title did not take his eyes off the champion either, and challenged Nitro to get into the ring. But Punk was then blindsided by Thorn, and would have been double-teamed by him and Nitro if he hadn’t fought off the powerhouse.
Nitro backed away from a likely attack on his challenger as Punk invited him to duke it out. As our fans at the American Airlines Center in Dallas chanted “CM Punk! CM Punk!” Nitro stuck his nose up and held his – and he would stress his – ECW World Title for Punk and the whole world to see. “You may have won your match, Punk, but I’m still the champ,” he seemed to say. “I’m the ECW World Champion, and you’re not.”
The latest duel between Punk and Nitro was essentially a draw as both men beat their respective “poisons.” Their rivalry, which began when Nitro defeated Punk for the vacant ECW World Title at Vengeance: Night of Champions, has only heated up in recent weeks as both men have traded verbal jabs at one another. They will have the opportunity to throw five-knuckled jabs when they wage war again over the ECW World Title at The Great American Bash on July 22. Read the whole story ...
But tonight, both young Superstars were content with having other men literally fight their battles for them. In some ways, it wasn’t surprising that Punk chose Dreamer to test Nitro. Punk, a fan of the original incarnation of ECW, respects Dreamer and the legacy he has built, and the two teamed together with Sandman in a Six-Man Tag Team Tables Match against the New Breed at One Night Stand.
Nitro, however, doesn’t have much respect for Dreamer and ECW’s history. Dreamer, a former ECW World Champion who has broken his back and neck for the promotion, is among those who have questioned Nitro’s toughness and whether he was “ECW enough” to be ECW World Champion. Nitro, in turn, has been on a mission to show naysayers that he represents the evolution of the Land of the Extreme. Read the whole story …
Dreamer took Nitro to the extreme – but the focused A-lister showed Dreamer that he was redefining extreme with his athleticism. Dreamer learned that Nitro’s pretty boy looks, stylish fur and Hollywood shades could be deceiving as the ECW Champion tortured him by targeting his left shoulder before ultimately flattening him with a corkscrew neckbreaker. (WATCH)
In Kevin Thorn, Nitro had a brutal, sadistic opponent who was well-acquainted with Punk. The two had battled several times, and Nitro knew Thorn would be relentless and remorseless in his assault.
Thorn had been on a reign of terror, bulldozing all foes since he had left the New Breed months ago. He overwhelmed Punk for much of their contest with his power. But the Straightedge Superstar – at the urging of his cheering legion of supporters – shook with adrenaline and showed the heart that has won fans the world over. (WATCH)
As he stood victorious in the ring, Punk looked at Nitro. He definitely had Nitro's undivided attention and had won him over. But make no mistake; the ECW World Champion is no fan of Punk. He knows the Straightedge Superstar is the biggest threat to his championship reign. For now, these two young Superstars are only exchanging glares. What will be next as they try to gain an advantage in the weeks before their clash at The Great American Bash?
Can't get enough of ECW on Sci Fi? Relive all the action on ECW.com's Hardcore Hangover.
Nitro seemed impressed, but his smile slowly faded as his eyes locked on Punk. The No. 1 contender to the ECW World Title did not take his eyes off the champion either, and challenged Nitro to get into the ring. But Punk was then blindsided by Thorn, and would have been double-teamed by him and Nitro if he hadn’t fought off the powerhouse.
Nitro backed away from a likely attack on his challenger as Punk invited him to duke it out. As our fans at the American Airlines Center in Dallas chanted “CM Punk! CM Punk!” Nitro stuck his nose up and held his – and he would stress his – ECW World Title for Punk and the whole world to see. “You may have won your match, Punk, but I’m still the champ,” he seemed to say. “I’m the ECW World Champion, and you’re not.”
The latest duel between Punk and Nitro was essentially a draw as both men beat their respective “poisons.” Their rivalry, which began when Nitro defeated Punk for the vacant ECW World Title at Vengeance: Night of Champions, has only heated up in recent weeks as both men have traded verbal jabs at one another. They will have the opportunity to throw five-knuckled jabs when they wage war again over the ECW World Title at The Great American Bash on July 22. Read the whole story ...
But tonight, both young Superstars were content with having other men literally fight their battles for them. In some ways, it wasn’t surprising that Punk chose Dreamer to test Nitro. Punk, a fan of the original incarnation of ECW, respects Dreamer and the legacy he has built, and the two teamed together with Sandman in a Six-Man Tag Team Tables Match against the New Breed at One Night Stand.
Nitro, however, doesn’t have much respect for Dreamer and ECW’s history. Dreamer, a former ECW World Champion who has broken his back and neck for the promotion, is among those who have questioned Nitro’s toughness and whether he was “ECW enough” to be ECW World Champion. Nitro, in turn, has been on a mission to show naysayers that he represents the evolution of the Land of the Extreme. Read the whole story …
Dreamer took Nitro to the extreme – but the focused A-lister showed Dreamer that he was redefining extreme with his athleticism. Dreamer learned that Nitro’s pretty boy looks, stylish fur and Hollywood shades could be deceiving as the ECW Champion tortured him by targeting his left shoulder before ultimately flattening him with a corkscrew neckbreaker. (WATCH)
In Kevin Thorn, Nitro had a brutal, sadistic opponent who was well-acquainted with Punk. The two had battled several times, and Nitro knew Thorn would be relentless and remorseless in his assault.
Thorn had been on a reign of terror, bulldozing all foes since he had left the New Breed months ago. He overwhelmed Punk for much of their contest with his power. But the Straightedge Superstar – at the urging of his cheering legion of supporters – shook with adrenaline and showed the heart that has won fans the world over. (WATCH)
As he stood victorious in the ring, Punk looked at Nitro. He definitely had Nitro's undivided attention and had won him over. But make no mistake; the ECW World Champion is no fan of Punk. He knows the Straightedge Superstar is the biggest threat to his championship reign. For now, these two young Superstars are only exchanging glares. What will be next as they try to gain an advantage in the weeks before their clash at The Great American Bash?
Can't get enough of ECW on Sci Fi? Relive all the action on ECW.com's Hardcore Hangover.
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Raw
WWE Raw is the Monday night professional wrestling television program for World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) and is the primary broadcast of the RAW brand. WWE Raw is generally seen as WWE's flagship program over its sister programs, SmackDown! and ECW, due to its longer history and the way it is promoted.
The show currently airs live on USA Network, and on tape delay Wednesdays on mun2, and Sundays on Telemundo (in Spanish) in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, Fridays in New Zealand on Sky 1 and Republic of Ireland on Sky Sports 3. It also currently broadcasts on tape delay in Canada on The Score and Global Quebec, in Australia on FOX8, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Malaysia on Astro Super Sport, in New Zealand on SKY 1, in India and Pakistan on Ten Sports, in the Philippines on Jack TV and RPN, in Chile on Chilevisión, in Mexico on 52MX, in Peru on ATV, in Romania on TV Sport, in South Korea on XTM, in Spain on Sportmanía, and on AFN Xtra. Raw is also currently being aired on Etv in South Africa. Occasionally, Raw is aired on same-day tape delay when WWE is on an overseas tour.
Show history
Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji on the very first episode of Monday Night RAW
Beginning as WWF Monday Night RAW, the program first aired on January 11, 1993 on the USA Network for one hour. The original RAW broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The RAW formula was very different than that of its predecessor, Prime Time Wrestling: instead of taped matches, with studio voice overs and taped chat, RAW was a show shot to a live audience, with angles as they happened. The first episode featured Yokozuna defeating Koko B. Ware, The Steiner Brothers defeating The Executioners, WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeating Max Moon and The Undertaker defeating Damien Demento. The show also featured an interview with Razor Ramon.
RAW originated from the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios, a small New York City theater and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved highly successful. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF, and taped shows began airing every other week. From early 1994 to September 1999, RAW was shown live on one Monday and then the next day (Tuesday) next Monday's RAW was taped. This meant that RAW was live one week and taped the next.
The storylines and characters during the early years of RAW still had a healthy dose of the old Federation "gimmick-heavy" style. For instance, there were moments such as Irwin R. Schyster tearing up Tatanka's headdress, the various "Undertaker sightings" (during the Undertaker vs. Undertaker storyline, leading up to SummerSlam 1994); and characters like Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Doink the Clown, or Thurman "Sparky" Plugg.
RAW was also one of a kind, in which they covered the unexpected, exciting moments, a prelude to the "Attitude Era", in which it coined RAW as "Uncut, Uncooked, Uncensored." Some of those moments include Razor Ramon losing a match unexpectedly to Sean "The 1-2-3 Kid" Waltman, who was later known as X-Pac, Marty Jannetty beating Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, and RAW was the first WWF television program of any kind to show footage of Lex Luger bodyslamming Yokozuna at the U.S.S. Intrepid.
The original hosts of RAW were Vince McMahon, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Rob Bartlett. Sean Mooney conducted the interviews and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan also helped contribute. Later in 1993, Rob Bartlett was dropped from the broadcasting team and was replaced by Bobby Heenan. Then on December 6, 1993, Gorilla Monsoon "kicked Bobby Heenan out of the WWF forever." In reality, this was a storyline between Monsoon and his close friend Heenan, who decided to leave the World Wrestling Federation in order to lighten his travel schedule and because he didn't want to take a 50% paycut. After about a year, RAW moved out of the Manhattan Center and traveled to various regular Federation venues in the United States.
The Monday Night Wars
The classic Monday Night RAW logo, used from 1993 to 1997.
Main article: Monday Night Wars
In 1995, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began airing its new wrestling show, Monday Nitro, live each week. Raw and WCW Monday Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. Due to RAW's taping schedule on several occasions, WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, who was also an on-air personality, gave away the results of WWF's taped RAW shows on the live WCW show. Some fans also looked at RAW taping results on the steadily-growing Internet; as a result, this caused the ratings of the taped RAW episodes to be lower.
WWF RAW had a live broadcast every other week to save costs, until September 1999, when ratings and pay-per-view buy rate increased, allowing them to justify doing a weekly live show.
At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, RAW and Nitro would exchange victories over each over in a closely contested rivalry. However, beginning in mid-1996, thanks primarily to the nWo angle, Monday Nitro started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 83 continuous weeks, ending on April 13, 1998.
"Pillman's got a gun"
On the November 4, 1996 episode of RAW, the WWF aired the infamous Pillman's Got a Gun angle with the feuding Steve Austin and Brian Pillman where Austin visited an injured Pillman at home. Austin was attacked by Pillman's friends as soon as he arrived, but soon subdued them. He then proceeded to break into Pillman's home but Pillman responded by producing a 9mm Glock and pointing it at a hesitant Austin. The camera feed was then disrupted, with the scene fading to black. The on-scene director contacted commentator Vince McMahon and reported that he had heard "a couple explosions." The transmission was restored later showing Pillman's friends dragging Austin from the house in a scene where Pillman screamed "That son of a bitch has got this coming! Let him go! I'm going to kill that son of a bitch! Get out of the fucking way!" The "fucking way" comment was not bleeped and was clearly noticeable which meant that the following week the WWF had to apologize for the incident in order to remain on the USA Network. Pillman also had to apologize for the comment as well, saying that it was not usual for him to say that.
RAW is WAR
The RAW is War logo, used March 10, 1997 to September 10, 2001.
On February 3, 1997, Monday Night RAW went to a two hour format, as the Attitude Era was starting to come in full stream in the WWF. In an attempt to break the momentum of what had turned into ratings domination by WCW's competing Monday Nitro, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was brought in as Jerry Lawler "challenged" ECW on February 17, 1997. In an episode where RAW returned to the Manhattan Center, the "challenge" answered on the following week's show with Taz, Mikey Whipwreck, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and the Sandman. ECW owner Paul Heyman did a call-in interview on RAW the week after that.
Throughout 1997, there were more and more controversial elements in RAW and WWF programming such as the Nation of Domination, and the D-Generation X "racial graffiti" storyline designed to "implicate Bret Hart's 'Hart Foundation'", and the XXX Files series.
On March 10, 1997, Monday Night RAW officially became RAW is War. The March 17, 1997 episode featured a heated Bret Hart/Vince McMahon ringside altercation (that unknowingly foreshadowed events in November) with profanity normally unheard on TV. Brian Pillman did a series of XXX Files segments with Terri Runnels, which further 'pushed the envelope'. These segments ended prematurely with the September 29, 1997 episode of RAW, after the death of Pillman on October 5, 1997 due to hereditary heart problems.
After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new "WWF Attitude" brand, led in particular by rising stars Steve Austin, The Rock and Mankind. The classic feud between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded from the color commentator into the evil company chairman character Mr. McMahon after the real-life Montreal Screwjob incident) and fan favorite Steve Austin (who had been released by Bischoff in the summer of 1995 for not being marketable) caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of RAW, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996.
While RAW was taking a new approach to programming, Nitro would start producing lackluster shows with the same storylines. Older stars such as Hogan and Nash frequented the main events, while younger talent such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were not given opportunities to advance, and the only newcomer elevated to main-event status at this time was Bill Goldberg.
Meanwhile, on RAW, fans were immersed in the feud between WWF owner Vince McMahon and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. New talent such as Triple H and his D-Generation X faction, Mankind and The Rock were elevated to main event status on the WWF's program. Superstars such as Kane, Val Venis, Goldust, etc. were coming through the ranks and exposing the WWF as the place where new talent comes through unlike the WCW counterpart. Things were so heated between the two programs that, when both shows were in the same area on the same night (RAW in Hampton, Virginia, Nitro in Norfolk), D-X was sent to film a "war" segment at the Norfolk Scope where they berated WCW and interviewed fans on camera who stated that they received their Nitro tickets for free (presumably in an attempt by WCW to pack the arena as full as possible due to low ticket sales).
On January 4, 1999. Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on RAW. On orders from Bischoff, Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on the live Nitro, and then sarcastically added "that'll sure put some butts in the seats"; over 600,000 viewers changed channels to watch RAW. This was also the night that Nitro aired a WCW World Championship match in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hulk Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the RAW audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!"
RAW won the ratings war against Nitro and never suffered a loss after February 8, 1999.
The end of the Wars
A new television contract with Viacom led to a WWF change in the broadcast. On September 25, 2000, RAW moved network from the USA Network over to TNN (which later became Spike TV).
WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings would lead to Time Warner's sale of the company to the WWF in 2001. The final edition of Nitro aired on March 26, 2001. The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW and ended with a simulcast on Raw on TNN with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon on Nitro. Shane would interrupt his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW, setting up what would now become the WWF's infamous "Invasion" storyline.
The RAW is WAR logo and name were retired in September 2001, following the September 11, 2001 attacks and sensitivity over the word "war". It also symbolized that professional wrestling's "Monday Night Wars" were over.
Brand Extension
In early to mid-2002, WWE underwent a process they called the Brand Extension. WWE divided itself into two de facto wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures. RAW and SmackDown! would host each division, give its name to the division and essentially compete against each other. The split was a result of WWF purchasing their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW.
Wrestlers now would become show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship, as those WWF/WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title on RAW, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown! The following week on Raw, General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated (or reinstated) World Heavyweight Title, with a design similar to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt, to Raw's designated #1 contender, Triple H.
The WWE Women's Championship is Raw-exclusive, after being mentioned in a backstage skit with then SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon on a September 2002 edition of SmackDown!
Following the Brand Extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.
WWE RAW claimed to have earned the distinction of having the most original episodes of any fictional weekly program on August 2, 2005 when it broadcasted the 636th episode. It was said to have took the place of Gunsmoke, which held that distinction. However, under the criteria WWE used to make this claim, the actual record would be held by the show Georgia Championship Wrestling, which ran continuously on Saturday evenings on TBS between 1972 and 1984.
Return to USA Network
On March 10, 2005, Viacom and WWE decided not to go on with the agreement with Spike TV, making it so RAW and other WWE programs on the network would cease when their deal expired in September 2005. On April 4, 2005, WWE announced a 3-year deal with NBC Universal to bring Raw back to its former home, the USA Network, with two yearly specials on NBC and a Spanish Raw on Telemundo.[1] On the same week as Raw's redebut on USA, Spike TV scheduled Ultimate Fighting Championship's live Ultimate Fight Night in Raw's old timeslot in an attempt to go head-to-head with RAW.
The show's first night back on USA was billed as the "WWE Homecoming" and featured the return of former WWE Champions such as Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Triple H and Vince McMahon along with cameos from legends such as Roddy Piper, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Snuka and Harley Race. The WWE Homecoming was three hours long — the longest an episode of RAW has ever run in its 12-year history. USA also showed RAW Exposed, an hour of the best moments of RAW during its previous run on USA. WWE announced that RAW received its highest ratings in three years, gaining close to six million viewers.
The following week, Vince McMahon fired Jim Ross for not helping after Steve Austin gave him and his entire family the Stone Cold Stunner. Jonathan Coachman was named as Ross's replacement, but after two weeks, he was replaced by former ECW announcer Joey Styles.
Since its return to the USA Network, WWE.com has hosted a new service called WWE Unlimited, which streams live clips of RAW before and after the show along with clips between commercial breaks. The service has shown some exclusive segments including the heel turn of Gregory Helms. Recurring segments include the Kiss Cam, by Diva Maria. During the segment, the camera will show two audience members and they kiss, and WWE Unlimited Trivia, hosted by backstage announcer Todd Grisham, in which he asks three fans in the front row a question about WWE history in that city. Since mid-July 2006, WWE no longer airs WWE Unlimited footage on WWE.com during RAW broadcasts, partially due to complaints by the USA Network that WWE Unlimited would cut into ad revenue made by commercials for the network.
RAW is sometimes taped alongside SmackDown!, in what is called a "WWE Supershow". The November 14, 2005 episode was one such "Supershow" - this was taped on the day Eddie Guerrero died in his Minneapolis hotel room. Because of this, both RAW and SmackDown! events were turned into tribute shows for Guerrero.
2006
On January 9, 2006, RAW claimed they would became the first sports program to air "live sex", between Edge and Lita on a bed placed in the ring. Unfortunately for the two, Ric Flair and John Cena came to ruin the "party". WWE announced that RAW had a 16% ratings boost from the previous week, with the "live sex" segment being the highest rated segment of the night.
On the May 1, 2006 edition of RAW, Joey Styles announced he was quitting by delivering a hard-hitting shoot-style promo in which he bashed Vince McMahon, WWE, sports entertainment, and the fact that people "buy into this crap." His vacating of the announcer position set the stage for Jim Ross to return to Raw's commentary booth, thus ending the storyline where Ross got fired by Linda McMahon. This freed Styles to become a commentator for ECW when it launched in June.
In Canada, after an 11 year run on TSN, RAW moved to rival sports broadcaster The Score after it was announced that TSN would be carrying Monday Night Football for the 2006 season. This also means that Canadian viewers will be watching via a tape-delay, as The Score does not broadcast RAW live, unlike they do in USA on the USA Network and in the U.K. on Sky Sports 3 but one hour (now 15 minutes, after a recap show from the last week) later than the live broadcast. RAW ratings have continued to stay strong, with new fan favorites and foes such as John Cena, Edge,Carlito, Randy Orton, and the reformed D-Generation X.
During the September 25, 2006 episode of RAW - the 696th Episode in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the opening of RAW suffered a blackout. Spotlights were the only lights running in the house. Power in the presentation was later restored. Another similar moment happened back on May 26, 1996 in Florence, South Carolina for WWF In Your House 8: Beware of Dog, when a major thunderstorm hit the Florence Civic Center causing major chaos for the PPV. That Tuesday, Beware of Dog, returned to North Charleston, South Carolina to finish out three matches that were not shown because of the lost power feed.
On October 9, 2006, RAW held a three hour season premiere titled "RAW Family Reunion", where WWE debuted a new logo and theme song for RAW, Papa Roach's "...To Be Loved." The episode also featured wrestlers from WWE's other two brands, SmackDown! and ECW. All the wrestlers who appeared from SmackDown! and ECW have appeared on RAW before the Family Reunion.
On October 23, 2006, RAW celebrated its 700th episode in Chicago. Since the episode, the show has been known as simply WWE Raw.
2007
Benoit controversy
On June 25, 2007, RAW was scheduled in Corpus Christi, Texas to be a three-hour special memorial show for the death of the Mr. McMahon character after he had been presumed dead in a limo explosion. The event was cancelled due to the death of Chris Benoit and his family earlier that day, with a three-hour memorial show being aired instead. This was the first time that RAW had aired with no audience and had Vince McMahon breaking kayfabe to address the viewers at home. Unlike the deaths of Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero, there was no bell toll and no one from the WWE standing in a line for Benoit. However instead of WWE stars wrestling for a dedication of Benoit, they showed tapes of Benoit's greatest matches thus current and former WWE stars including Stephanie McMahon would talk about him.
However, when the true facts of Benoit's death came to light, WWE pulled this episode from international markets which aired RAW on a tape delay basis. Several channels announced the episode was being withheld for legal reasons. A substitute RAW, hosted by Todd Grisham from the WWE Studios, was created featuring re-caps of big-time championship changes of the past year. The episode started with the 'apology message' from Vince McMahon which originally started the June 26 ECW episode.
Recurring segments
In addition to wrestling matches and backstage vignettes, Raw has also aired several recurring segments as part of its program. From its inception in 1993, the show featured the "RAW Girls"; non-wrestling women who would carry signs around the ring before matches, each with a clever way of promoting the show (For example: "Open wide and say Raw!"); however, the Raw Girls would be eventually phased out, but was later emulated in a way by WCW as the Nitro Girls. From 1993 through 1995, Jerry "The King" Lawler hosted The King's Court, an interview segment inspired by Piper's Pit from years prior. In late 1995, Brother Love returned for a brief stint and once again hosted The Brother Love Show. In 1998, Dude Love hosted a short-lived segment entitled Dude's Love Shack; however, when Steve Austin destroyed the set, the segment was abandoned. In 2003, Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel made it's debut, and after initially appearing regularly, made sporadic reappearances until Jericho took a break from professional wrestling in August 2005. Also in that year, Rodney Mack and Theodore Long hosted the White Boy Challenge, a five minute time-limit challenge for any white wrestler to beat Mack. The challenge was eventually ended by Goldberg in the same year. 2004 saw the addition of an annual RAW Diva Search, however 2006 saw the RAW Diva Search renamed to the WWE Diva Search for all brands to participate. 2005 saw WWE newcomer Chris Masters introduce the Masterlock Challenge soon after his debut, the Masterlock wasn't officially broken until the March 19, 2007 edition of RAW by Bobby Lashley.
The 2005 draft brought Kurt Angle and his Kurt Angle Invitational to the show, which was briefly turned into Eugene's Eugene Invitational. Carlito brought his interview segment Carlito's Cabana from SmackDown! to RAW as well. In the same year, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper made two guest appearances hosting a special edition of his interview segment "Piper's Pit" in which he interviewed Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley in separate segments. In December of that year, Edge launched The Cutting Edge, replacing the Cabana as Raw's interview segment for only special occasions. Matt Striker also hosts a segment occasionally called Matt Striker's Classroom. In this segment, he acts as a teacher (his former real-life profession) and insults the audience's intellectual capacity. The segment transferred to ECW when Striker was moved to that brand.
A.M. RAW
WWE A.M. RAW
Genre
Professional wrestling
Starring
RAW brand
Opening theme
"...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach
Country of origin
United States
Production
Running time
1 hour (42 minutes plus commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel
USA Network
Original run
October 8, 2005 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
WWE A.M. RAW is a Saturday morning show that airs on the USA Network at 9 a.m. and 2 a.m. ET. It features segments from the latest episode of Raw with a ticker along the bottom section of the screen that provides information about WWE, including trivia and live event news.
The original A.M. RAW logo (2005-2006).
A.M. RAW debuted at its current time of 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, but for a short period, it was moved to Sunday mornings at 2 a.m., until November 11, 2006 when it was returned to its current Saturday morning timeslot while continuing to air at 2 a.m. as well. However, it did gather higher ratings in the Sunday morning timeslot than it had with its previous Saturday 9 a.m. timeslot.
On-air personalities
General managers
For a more descriptive list of authority figures from the Raw brand, see List of authority figures in professional wrestling
Eric Bischoff (July 15, 2002 – December 5, 2005; November 6, 20061)
Stone Cold Steve Austin (as co-general manager, April 28, 2003 – November 16, 2003)
Mick Foley (as co-general manager, December 1, 2003 – December 15, 2003)
Vince McMahon (December 12, 2005 – June 11, 2007)2)
Jonathan Coachman (Executive Assistant/Interim GM) (June 18, 2007 - Present)3
1This was a reward from Mr. McMahon to Bischoff for his refereeing job at Cyber Sunday
2On May 29, 2006, Mr. McMahon made Jonathan Coachman his Executive Assistant. Upon doing so McMahon stated "No one could replace me as GM", in essence giving Coachman GM powers under a new title.
3 Was officially named Interim GM by the McMahon family following Vince McMahon's limo "incident".[2]
Commentators
Vince McMahon (January 1993 – November 1997)
"Macho Man" Randy Savage (January 1993 – October 1993; March 1994 – October 1994)
Rob Bartlett (January 1993 – April 1993)
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (March 1993 – November 1993)
Johnny Polo (November 1993 – March 1994)
Jerry Lawler (March 1994 – November 1994; February 1995 – February 2001; November 2001 – present)
Shawn Michaels (November 1994 – February 1995; filled in for Jerry Lawler in July 1995)
Jim Cornette (March 1995, December 1997; filled in for Jerry Lawler in April 1999 )
Curt Hennig (filled in for Jerry Lawler occasionally from 1995 to 1996)
Jim Ross (filled in for Vince McMahon in 1994; September 1996 – December 1998; April 1999 – October 2005, May 2006 – present)
Kevin Kelly (September 1996 – October 1996; December 1997 – March 1998)
Michael Cole (filled in for the ill Jim Ross from December 1998 – April 1999; filled in for Paul Heyman in July 2001)
Paul Heyman (February 2001 – November 2001)
Jonathan Coachman (filled in for Jim Ross occasionally from 2003 to 2005; August 2005 – May 2006)
Al Snow (September 2003)
Joey Styles (November 2005 – May 2006)
Todd Grisham (May 2006)
Announcers
Lilian Garcia (August 1999 – present)
Tony Chimel (April 1997 – August 1999)
Howard Finkel (January 1993 – August 1999)
Justin Roberts (March 2007 - June 2007)
Production
The theme tune for WWE RAW is "...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach, (formerly "Across the Nation" by Union Underground), and is blared through the arena in which WWE RAW is being held in moments prior to the live television broadcast. Brief clips from WWE Raw broadcasts and RAW PPV events as well as brief clips of RAW superstars out of the ring are interlaced with scenes of cityscapes of Manhattan, New York. The opening montage is also shown, along with the WWE signature montage that is shown immediately before it, at live RAW events over the TitanTron to give those in the arena a glimpse of what's being aired on live TV.
From its launch in January 11, 1993, the show was known as Monday Night RAW. As of March 10, 1997 though, the two hours of RAW had different names for television ratings purposes, so the then-WWF could demand higher advertising charges for the more-watched second hour. The two hours were known as RAW is War and the War Zone, as "war" is the reverse of RAW. References to war were eliminated on September 17, 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks, changing the hour names to RAW and the RAW Zone. When the change was made, the entire program was just referred to as RAW on-camera. However, the hourly names are still referred to on the show's on-screen graphics.
On Monday, October 23 2006; RAW aired its 700th episode, making it the longest running weekly entertainment show, without a hiatus, in television history.
The show currently airs live on USA Network, and on tape delay Wednesdays on mun2, and Sundays on Telemundo (in Spanish) in the United States, and in the United Kingdom, Fridays in New Zealand on Sky 1 and Republic of Ireland on Sky Sports 3. It also currently broadcasts on tape delay in Canada on The Score and Global Quebec, in Australia on FOX8, in Portugal on SIC Radical, in Malaysia on Astro Super Sport, in New Zealand on SKY 1, in India and Pakistan on Ten Sports, in the Philippines on Jack TV and RPN, in Chile on Chilevisión, in Mexico on 52MX, in Peru on ATV, in Romania on TV Sport, in South Korea on XTM, in Spain on Sportmanía, and on AFN Xtra. Raw is also currently being aired on Etv in South Africa. Occasionally, Raw is aired on same-day tape delay when WWE is on an overseas tour.
Show history
Yokozuna and Mr. Fuji on the very first episode of Monday Night RAW
Beginning as WWF Monday Night RAW, the program first aired on January 11, 1993 on the USA Network for one hour. The original RAW broke new ground in televised professional wrestling. Traditionally, wrestling shows were taped on sound stages with small audiences or at large arena shows. The RAW formula was very different than that of its predecessor, Prime Time Wrestling: instead of taped matches, with studio voice overs and taped chat, RAW was a show shot to a live audience, with angles as they happened. The first episode featured Yokozuna defeating Koko B. Ware, The Steiner Brothers defeating The Executioners, WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels defeating Max Moon and The Undertaker defeating Damien Demento. The show also featured an interview with Razor Ramon.
RAW originated from the Grand Ballroom at Manhattan Center Studios, a small New York City theater and aired live each week. The combination of an intimate venue and live action proved highly successful. However, the weekly live schedule proved to be a financial drain on the WWF, and taped shows began airing every other week. From early 1994 to September 1999, RAW was shown live on one Monday and then the next day (Tuesday) next Monday's RAW was taped. This meant that RAW was live one week and taped the next.
The storylines and characters during the early years of RAW still had a healthy dose of the old Federation "gimmick-heavy" style. For instance, there were moments such as Irwin R. Schyster tearing up Tatanka's headdress, the various "Undertaker sightings" (during the Undertaker vs. Undertaker storyline, leading up to SummerSlam 1994); and characters like Duke "The Dumpster" Droese, Doink the Clown, or Thurman "Sparky" Plugg.
RAW was also one of a kind, in which they covered the unexpected, exciting moments, a prelude to the "Attitude Era", in which it coined RAW as "Uncut, Uncooked, Uncensored." Some of those moments include Razor Ramon losing a match unexpectedly to Sean "The 1-2-3 Kid" Waltman, who was later known as X-Pac, Marty Jannetty beating Shawn Michaels to win the WWF Intercontinental Championship, and RAW was the first WWF television program of any kind to show footage of Lex Luger bodyslamming Yokozuna at the U.S.S. Intrepid.
The original hosts of RAW were Vince McMahon, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, and Rob Bartlett. Sean Mooney conducted the interviews and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan also helped contribute. Later in 1993, Rob Bartlett was dropped from the broadcasting team and was replaced by Bobby Heenan. Then on December 6, 1993, Gorilla Monsoon "kicked Bobby Heenan out of the WWF forever." In reality, this was a storyline between Monsoon and his close friend Heenan, who decided to leave the World Wrestling Federation in order to lighten his travel schedule and because he didn't want to take a 50% paycut. After about a year, RAW moved out of the Manhattan Center and traveled to various regular Federation venues in the United States.
The Monday Night Wars
The classic Monday Night RAW logo, used from 1993 to 1997.
Main article: Monday Night Wars
In 1995, World Championship Wrestling (WCW) began airing its new wrestling show, Monday Nitro, live each week. Raw and WCW Monday Nitro went head-to-head for the first time on September 11, 1995. Due to RAW's taping schedule on several occasions, WCW Vice President Eric Bischoff, who was also an on-air personality, gave away the results of WWF's taped RAW shows on the live WCW show. Some fans also looked at RAW taping results on the steadily-growing Internet; as a result, this caused the ratings of the taped RAW episodes to be lower.
WWF RAW had a live broadcast every other week to save costs, until September 1999, when ratings and pay-per-view buy rate increased, allowing them to justify doing a weekly live show.
At the start of the ratings war in 1995 through to mid-1996, RAW and Nitro would exchange victories over each over in a closely contested rivalry. However, beginning in mid-1996, thanks primarily to the nWo angle, Monday Nitro started a ratings win-streak that lasted for 83 continuous weeks, ending on April 13, 1998.
"Pillman's got a gun"
On the November 4, 1996 episode of RAW, the WWF aired the infamous Pillman's Got a Gun angle with the feuding Steve Austin and Brian Pillman where Austin visited an injured Pillman at home. Austin was attacked by Pillman's friends as soon as he arrived, but soon subdued them. He then proceeded to break into Pillman's home but Pillman responded by producing a 9mm Glock and pointing it at a hesitant Austin. The camera feed was then disrupted, with the scene fading to black. The on-scene director contacted commentator Vince McMahon and reported that he had heard "a couple explosions." The transmission was restored later showing Pillman's friends dragging Austin from the house in a scene where Pillman screamed "That son of a bitch has got this coming! Let him go! I'm going to kill that son of a bitch! Get out of the fucking way!" The "fucking way" comment was not bleeped and was clearly noticeable which meant that the following week the WWF had to apologize for the incident in order to remain on the USA Network. Pillman also had to apologize for the comment as well, saying that it was not usual for him to say that.
RAW is WAR
The RAW is War logo, used March 10, 1997 to September 10, 2001.
On February 3, 1997, Monday Night RAW went to a two hour format, as the Attitude Era was starting to come in full stream in the WWF. In an attempt to break the momentum of what had turned into ratings domination by WCW's competing Monday Nitro, Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) was brought in as Jerry Lawler "challenged" ECW on February 17, 1997. In an episode where RAW returned to the Manhattan Center, the "challenge" answered on the following week's show with Taz, Mikey Whipwreck, Sabu, Tommy Dreamer, D-Von Dudley, and the Sandman. ECW owner Paul Heyman did a call-in interview on RAW the week after that.
Throughout 1997, there were more and more controversial elements in RAW and WWF programming such as the Nation of Domination, and the D-Generation X "racial graffiti" storyline designed to "implicate Bret Hart's 'Hart Foundation'", and the XXX Files series.
On March 10, 1997, Monday Night RAW officially became RAW is War. The March 17, 1997 episode featured a heated Bret Hart/Vince McMahon ringside altercation (that unknowingly foreshadowed events in November) with profanity normally unheard on TV. Brian Pillman did a series of XXX Files segments with Terri Runnels, which further 'pushed the envelope'. These segments ended prematurely with the September 29, 1997 episode of RAW, after the death of Pillman on October 5, 1997 due to hereditary heart problems.
After WrestleMania XIV in March 1998, the WWF regained the lead in the Monday Night Wars with its new "WWF Attitude" brand, led in particular by rising stars Steve Austin, The Rock and Mankind. The classic feud between the villainous WWF Chairman Vince McMahon (who was re-imagined and re-branded from the color commentator into the evil company chairman character Mr. McMahon after the real-life Montreal Screwjob incident) and fan favorite Steve Austin (who had been released by Bischoff in the summer of 1995 for not being marketable) caught the imaginations of fans. The April 13, 1998 episode of RAW, headlined by a match between Austin and McMahon, marked the first time that WCW had lost the head-to-head Monday night ratings battle in the 84 weeks since 1996.
While RAW was taking a new approach to programming, Nitro would start producing lackluster shows with the same storylines. Older stars such as Hogan and Nash frequented the main events, while younger talent such as Chris Jericho, Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were not given opportunities to advance, and the only newcomer elevated to main-event status at this time was Bill Goldberg.
Meanwhile, on RAW, fans were immersed in the feud between WWF owner Vince McMahon and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. New talent such as Triple H and his D-Generation X faction, Mankind and The Rock were elevated to main event status on the WWF's program. Superstars such as Kane, Val Venis, Goldust, etc. were coming through the ranks and exposing the WWF as the place where new talent comes through unlike the WCW counterpart. Things were so heated between the two programs that, when both shows were in the same area on the same night (RAW in Hampton, Virginia, Nitro in Norfolk), D-X was sent to film a "war" segment at the Norfolk Scope where they berated WCW and interviewed fans on camera who stated that they received their Nitro tickets for free (presumably in an attempt by WCW to pack the arena as full as possible due to low ticket sales).
On January 4, 1999. Mick Foley, who had wrestled for WCW during the early 1990s as Cactus Jack, won the WWF Title as Mankind on RAW. On orders from Bischoff, Nitro announcer Tony Schiavone gave away this previously taped result on the live Nitro, and then sarcastically added "that'll sure put some butts in the seats"; over 600,000 viewers changed channels to watch RAW. This was also the night that Nitro aired a WCW World Championship match in which Kevin Nash blatantly laid down for Hulk Hogan after Hogan poked him in the chest. The next week, and for months after, many fans in the RAW audience brought signs which read, "Mick Foley put my ass in this seat!"
RAW won the ratings war against Nitro and never suffered a loss after February 8, 1999.
The end of the Wars
A new television contract with Viacom led to a WWF change in the broadcast. On September 25, 2000, RAW moved network from the USA Network over to TNN (which later became Spike TV).
WCW's sharp decline in revenue and ratings would lead to Time Warner's sale of the company to the WWF in 2001. The final edition of Nitro aired on March 26, 2001. The show began with Vince McMahon making a short statement about his recent purchase of WCW and ended with a simulcast on Raw on TNN with an appearance by Vince's son Shane McMahon on Nitro. Shane would interrupt his father's gloating over the WCW purchase to explain that Shane was the one who actually owned WCW, setting up what would now become the WWF's infamous "Invasion" storyline.
The RAW is WAR logo and name were retired in September 2001, following the September 11, 2001 attacks and sensitivity over the word "war". It also symbolized that professional wrestling's "Monday Night Wars" were over.
Brand Extension
In early to mid-2002, WWE underwent a process they called the Brand Extension. WWE divided itself into two de facto wrestling promotions with separate rosters, storylines and authority figures. RAW and SmackDown! would host each division, give its name to the division and essentially compete against each other. The split was a result of WWF purchasing their two biggest competitors, WCW and ECW.
Wrestlers now would become show-exclusive, wrestling for their specific show only. At the time this excluded the WWE Undisputed Championship and WWE Women's Championship, as those WWF/WWE titles would be defended on both shows. In August 2002, WWE Undisputed Champion Brock Lesnar refused to defend the title on RAW, in effect causing his title to become exclusive to SmackDown! The following week on Raw, General Manager Eric Bischoff awarded a newly instated (or reinstated) World Heavyweight Title, with a design similar to the WCW World Heavyweight Championship belt, to Raw's designated #1 contender, Triple H.
The WWE Women's Championship is Raw-exclusive, after being mentioned in a backstage skit with then SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon on a September 2002 edition of SmackDown!
Following the Brand Extension, an annual "draft lottery" was instituted to exchange members of each roster and generally refresh the lineups.
WWE RAW claimed to have earned the distinction of having the most original episodes of any fictional weekly program on August 2, 2005 when it broadcasted the 636th episode. It was said to have took the place of Gunsmoke, which held that distinction. However, under the criteria WWE used to make this claim, the actual record would be held by the show Georgia Championship Wrestling, which ran continuously on Saturday evenings on TBS between 1972 and 1984.
Return to USA Network
On March 10, 2005, Viacom and WWE decided not to go on with the agreement with Spike TV, making it so RAW and other WWE programs on the network would cease when their deal expired in September 2005. On April 4, 2005, WWE announced a 3-year deal with NBC Universal to bring Raw back to its former home, the USA Network, with two yearly specials on NBC and a Spanish Raw on Telemundo.[1] On the same week as Raw's redebut on USA, Spike TV scheduled Ultimate Fighting Championship's live Ultimate Fight Night in Raw's old timeslot in an attempt to go head-to-head with RAW.
The show's first night back on USA was billed as the "WWE Homecoming" and featured the return of former WWE Champions such as Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, Triple H and Vince McMahon along with cameos from legends such as Roddy Piper, Jimmy Hart, Jimmy Snuka and Harley Race. The WWE Homecoming was three hours long — the longest an episode of RAW has ever run in its 12-year history. USA also showed RAW Exposed, an hour of the best moments of RAW during its previous run on USA. WWE announced that RAW received its highest ratings in three years, gaining close to six million viewers.
The following week, Vince McMahon fired Jim Ross for not helping after Steve Austin gave him and his entire family the Stone Cold Stunner. Jonathan Coachman was named as Ross's replacement, but after two weeks, he was replaced by former ECW announcer Joey Styles.
Since its return to the USA Network, WWE.com has hosted a new service called WWE Unlimited, which streams live clips of RAW before and after the show along with clips between commercial breaks. The service has shown some exclusive segments including the heel turn of Gregory Helms. Recurring segments include the Kiss Cam, by Diva Maria. During the segment, the camera will show two audience members and they kiss, and WWE Unlimited Trivia, hosted by backstage announcer Todd Grisham, in which he asks three fans in the front row a question about WWE history in that city. Since mid-July 2006, WWE no longer airs WWE Unlimited footage on WWE.com during RAW broadcasts, partially due to complaints by the USA Network that WWE Unlimited would cut into ad revenue made by commercials for the network.
RAW is sometimes taped alongside SmackDown!, in what is called a "WWE Supershow". The November 14, 2005 episode was one such "Supershow" - this was taped on the day Eddie Guerrero died in his Minneapolis hotel room. Because of this, both RAW and SmackDown! events were turned into tribute shows for Guerrero.
2006
On January 9, 2006, RAW claimed they would became the first sports program to air "live sex", between Edge and Lita on a bed placed in the ring. Unfortunately for the two, Ric Flair and John Cena came to ruin the "party". WWE announced that RAW had a 16% ratings boost from the previous week, with the "live sex" segment being the highest rated segment of the night.
On the May 1, 2006 edition of RAW, Joey Styles announced he was quitting by delivering a hard-hitting shoot-style promo in which he bashed Vince McMahon, WWE, sports entertainment, and the fact that people "buy into this crap." His vacating of the announcer position set the stage for Jim Ross to return to Raw's commentary booth, thus ending the storyline where Ross got fired by Linda McMahon. This freed Styles to become a commentator for ECW when it launched in June.
In Canada, after an 11 year run on TSN, RAW moved to rival sports broadcaster The Score after it was announced that TSN would be carrying Monday Night Football for the 2006 season. This also means that Canadian viewers will be watching via a tape-delay, as The Score does not broadcast RAW live, unlike they do in USA on the USA Network and in the U.K. on Sky Sports 3 but one hour (now 15 minutes, after a recap show from the last week) later than the live broadcast. RAW ratings have continued to stay strong, with new fan favorites and foes such as John Cena, Edge,Carlito, Randy Orton, and the reformed D-Generation X.
During the September 25, 2006 episode of RAW - the 696th Episode in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, the opening of RAW suffered a blackout. Spotlights were the only lights running in the house. Power in the presentation was later restored. Another similar moment happened back on May 26, 1996 in Florence, South Carolina for WWF In Your House 8: Beware of Dog, when a major thunderstorm hit the Florence Civic Center causing major chaos for the PPV. That Tuesday, Beware of Dog, returned to North Charleston, South Carolina to finish out three matches that were not shown because of the lost power feed.
On October 9, 2006, RAW held a three hour season premiere titled "RAW Family Reunion", where WWE debuted a new logo and theme song for RAW, Papa Roach's "...To Be Loved." The episode also featured wrestlers from WWE's other two brands, SmackDown! and ECW. All the wrestlers who appeared from SmackDown! and ECW have appeared on RAW before the Family Reunion.
On October 23, 2006, RAW celebrated its 700th episode in Chicago. Since the episode, the show has been known as simply WWE Raw.
2007
Benoit controversy
On June 25, 2007, RAW was scheduled in Corpus Christi, Texas to be a three-hour special memorial show for the death of the Mr. McMahon character after he had been presumed dead in a limo explosion. The event was cancelled due to the death of Chris Benoit and his family earlier that day, with a three-hour memorial show being aired instead. This was the first time that RAW had aired with no audience and had Vince McMahon breaking kayfabe to address the viewers at home. Unlike the deaths of Owen Hart and Eddie Guerrero, there was no bell toll and no one from the WWE standing in a line for Benoit. However instead of WWE stars wrestling for a dedication of Benoit, they showed tapes of Benoit's greatest matches thus current and former WWE stars including Stephanie McMahon would talk about him.
However, when the true facts of Benoit's death came to light, WWE pulled this episode from international markets which aired RAW on a tape delay basis. Several channels announced the episode was being withheld for legal reasons. A substitute RAW, hosted by Todd Grisham from the WWE Studios, was created featuring re-caps of big-time championship changes of the past year. The episode started with the 'apology message' from Vince McMahon which originally started the June 26 ECW episode.
Recurring segments
In addition to wrestling matches and backstage vignettes, Raw has also aired several recurring segments as part of its program. From its inception in 1993, the show featured the "RAW Girls"; non-wrestling women who would carry signs around the ring before matches, each with a clever way of promoting the show (For example: "Open wide and say Raw!"); however, the Raw Girls would be eventually phased out, but was later emulated in a way by WCW as the Nitro Girls. From 1993 through 1995, Jerry "The King" Lawler hosted The King's Court, an interview segment inspired by Piper's Pit from years prior. In late 1995, Brother Love returned for a brief stint and once again hosted The Brother Love Show. In 1998, Dude Love hosted a short-lived segment entitled Dude's Love Shack; however, when Steve Austin destroyed the set, the segment was abandoned. In 2003, Chris Jericho's Highlight Reel made it's debut, and after initially appearing regularly, made sporadic reappearances until Jericho took a break from professional wrestling in August 2005. Also in that year, Rodney Mack and Theodore Long hosted the White Boy Challenge, a five minute time-limit challenge for any white wrestler to beat Mack. The challenge was eventually ended by Goldberg in the same year. 2004 saw the addition of an annual RAW Diva Search, however 2006 saw the RAW Diva Search renamed to the WWE Diva Search for all brands to participate. 2005 saw WWE newcomer Chris Masters introduce the Masterlock Challenge soon after his debut, the Masterlock wasn't officially broken until the March 19, 2007 edition of RAW by Bobby Lashley.
The 2005 draft brought Kurt Angle and his Kurt Angle Invitational to the show, which was briefly turned into Eugene's Eugene Invitational. Carlito brought his interview segment Carlito's Cabana from SmackDown! to RAW as well. In the same year, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper made two guest appearances hosting a special edition of his interview segment "Piper's Pit" in which he interviewed Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley in separate segments. In December of that year, Edge launched The Cutting Edge, replacing the Cabana as Raw's interview segment for only special occasions. Matt Striker also hosts a segment occasionally called Matt Striker's Classroom. In this segment, he acts as a teacher (his former real-life profession) and insults the audience's intellectual capacity. The segment transferred to ECW when Striker was moved to that brand.
A.M. RAW
WWE A.M. RAW
Genre
Professional wrestling
Starring
RAW brand
Opening theme
"...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach
Country of origin
United States
Production
Running time
1 hour (42 minutes plus commercials)
Broadcast
Original channel
USA Network
Original run
October 8, 2005 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
WWE A.M. RAW is a Saturday morning show that airs on the USA Network at 9 a.m. and 2 a.m. ET. It features segments from the latest episode of Raw with a ticker along the bottom section of the screen that provides information about WWE, including trivia and live event news.
The original A.M. RAW logo (2005-2006).
A.M. RAW debuted at its current time of 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, but for a short period, it was moved to Sunday mornings at 2 a.m., until November 11, 2006 when it was returned to its current Saturday morning timeslot while continuing to air at 2 a.m. as well. However, it did gather higher ratings in the Sunday morning timeslot than it had with its previous Saturday 9 a.m. timeslot.
On-air personalities
General managers
For a more descriptive list of authority figures from the Raw brand, see List of authority figures in professional wrestling
Eric Bischoff (July 15, 2002 – December 5, 2005; November 6, 20061)
Stone Cold Steve Austin (as co-general manager, April 28, 2003 – November 16, 2003)
Mick Foley (as co-general manager, December 1, 2003 – December 15, 2003)
Vince McMahon (December 12, 2005 – June 11, 2007)2)
Jonathan Coachman (Executive Assistant/Interim GM) (June 18, 2007 - Present)3
1This was a reward from Mr. McMahon to Bischoff for his refereeing job at Cyber Sunday
2On May 29, 2006, Mr. McMahon made Jonathan Coachman his Executive Assistant. Upon doing so McMahon stated "No one could replace me as GM", in essence giving Coachman GM powers under a new title.
3 Was officially named Interim GM by the McMahon family following Vince McMahon's limo "incident".[2]
Commentators
Vince McMahon (January 1993 – November 1997)
"Macho Man" Randy Savage (January 1993 – October 1993; March 1994 – October 1994)
Rob Bartlett (January 1993 – April 1993)
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (March 1993 – November 1993)
Johnny Polo (November 1993 – March 1994)
Jerry Lawler (March 1994 – November 1994; February 1995 – February 2001; November 2001 – present)
Shawn Michaels (November 1994 – February 1995; filled in for Jerry Lawler in July 1995)
Jim Cornette (March 1995, December 1997; filled in for Jerry Lawler in April 1999 )
Curt Hennig (filled in for Jerry Lawler occasionally from 1995 to 1996)
Jim Ross (filled in for Vince McMahon in 1994; September 1996 – December 1998; April 1999 – October 2005, May 2006 – present)
Kevin Kelly (September 1996 – October 1996; December 1997 – March 1998)
Michael Cole (filled in for the ill Jim Ross from December 1998 – April 1999; filled in for Paul Heyman in July 2001)
Paul Heyman (February 2001 – November 2001)
Jonathan Coachman (filled in for Jim Ross occasionally from 2003 to 2005; August 2005 – May 2006)
Al Snow (September 2003)
Joey Styles (November 2005 – May 2006)
Todd Grisham (May 2006)
Announcers
Lilian Garcia (August 1999 – present)
Tony Chimel (April 1997 – August 1999)
Howard Finkel (January 1993 – August 1999)
Justin Roberts (March 2007 - June 2007)
Production
The theme tune for WWE RAW is "...To Be Loved" by Papa Roach, (formerly "Across the Nation" by Union Underground), and is blared through the arena in which WWE RAW is being held in moments prior to the live television broadcast. Brief clips from WWE Raw broadcasts and RAW PPV events as well as brief clips of RAW superstars out of the ring are interlaced with scenes of cityscapes of Manhattan, New York. The opening montage is also shown, along with the WWE signature montage that is shown immediately before it, at live RAW events over the TitanTron to give those in the arena a glimpse of what's being aired on live TV.
From its launch in January 11, 1993, the show was known as Monday Night RAW. As of March 10, 1997 though, the two hours of RAW had different names for television ratings purposes, so the then-WWF could demand higher advertising charges for the more-watched second hour. The two hours were known as RAW is War and the War Zone, as "war" is the reverse of RAW. References to war were eliminated on September 17, 2001 after the September 11, 2001 attacks, changing the hour names to RAW and the RAW Zone. When the change was made, the entire program was just referred to as RAW on-camera. However, the hourly names are still referred to on the show's on-screen graphics.
On Monday, October 23 2006; RAW aired its 700th episode, making it the longest running weekly entertainment show, without a hiatus, in television history.
ECW
Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) is a professional wrestling promotion that was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1992 by Tod Gordon, and closed when his successor, Paul Heyman, declared bankruptcy in April 2001.
The company became known for its loyal fan base as well as its tendency to push the envelope with storylines. The group has showcased many different styles of professional wrestling, ranging from lucha libre to hardcore wrestling.
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought the rights to ECW and its library after its 2001 closure and revived the promotion in a full-time fashion on June 13, 2006 with a weekly television series on Sci Fi Channel in the United States, FOX8 in Australia, SIC Radical in Portugal and Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom. In 2005 and 2006, WWE promoted an ECW-brand event called ECW One Night Stand, and in June 2006, it became a separate brand of WWE programming, along with RAW and SmackDown!.
History
ECW was founded in 1992, under the name Eastern Championship Wrestling as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). After owner Tod Gordon had a falling out with head booker Eddie Gilbert, Gordon chose Gilbert's friend and WCW alumnus Paul Heyman to replace him. Eddie exhibited unstable behavior and drug abuse before he was replaced. Heyman's first show with the promotion was NWA Ultra Clash '93 on September 18, 1993 at Viking Hall (which would eventually be dubbed The ECW Arena) in Philadelphia.
When ECW was branching out, professional wrestlers had far more cartoonish gimmicks. The product was marketed more towards children than the 18-35 male demographic that ECW was aiming towards. There were also far more taboos such as blading and women getting regularly beaten up by the male wrestlers. Heyman saw ECW as the professional wrestling equivalent to the grunge movement.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
In 1994, Jim Crockett's non-compete agreement with Ted Turner, who purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Crockett in 1988, was up and he decided to start promoting with the NWA again. Crockett went to Tod Gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the ECW Arena on August 27, 1994. NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo thought that Crockett and Gordon were going to try to monopolize the title (much like Crockett did in the 1980s) and told them they didn't have the NWA board's approval so he took control over the tournament. Gordon was upset at Coralluzzo for his power plays so Gordon and Shane Douglas, who was booked to win the title against 2 Cold Scorpio, planned to have Douglas throw the title down after he won it and break ECW from the NWA. In a now classic post-match speech, Shane Douglas said that he didn't want to be a part of an organization that "died" seven years earlier (presumably when Jim Crockett sold his NWA super territory to Turner Broadcasting in 1988).
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) bought the rights to ECW and its library after its 2001 closure and revived the promotion in a full-time fashion on June 13, 2006 with a weekly television series on Sci Fi Channel in the United States, FOX8 in Australia, SIC Radical in Portugal and Sky Sports 3 in the United Kingdom. In 2005 and 2006, WWE promoted an ECW-brand event called ECW One Night Stand, and in June 2006, it became a separate brand of WWE programming, along with RAW and SmackDown!.
History
ECW was founded in 1992, under the name Eastern Championship Wrestling as a member of the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA). After owner Tod Gordon had a falling out with head booker Eddie Gilbert, Gordon chose Gilbert's friend and WCW alumnus Paul Heyman to replace him. Eddie exhibited unstable behavior and drug abuse before he was replaced. Heyman's first show with the promotion was NWA Ultra Clash '93 on September 18, 1993 at Viking Hall (which would eventually be dubbed The ECW Arena) in Philadelphia.
When ECW was branching out, professional wrestlers had far more cartoonish gimmicks. The product was marketed more towards children than the 18-35 male demographic that ECW was aiming towards. There were also far more taboos such as blading and women getting regularly beaten up by the male wrestlers. Heyman saw ECW as the professional wrestling equivalent to the grunge movement.
Extreme Championship Wrestling
In 1994, Jim Crockett's non-compete agreement with Ted Turner, who purchased World Championship Wrestling (WCW) from Crockett in 1988, was up and he decided to start promoting with the NWA again. Crockett went to Tod Gordon and asked him to hold a tournament for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship at the ECW Arena on August 27, 1994. NWA President Dennis Coralluzzo thought that Crockett and Gordon were going to try to monopolize the title (much like Crockett did in the 1980s) and told them they didn't have the NWA board's approval so he took control over the tournament. Gordon was upset at Coralluzzo for his power plays so Gordon and Shane Douglas, who was booked to win the title against 2 Cold Scorpio, planned to have Douglas throw the title down after he won it and break ECW from the NWA. In a now classic post-match speech, Shane Douglas said that he didn't want to be a part of an organization that "died" seven years earlier (presumably when Jim Crockett sold his NWA super territory to Turner Broadcasting in 1988).
After ECW withdrew from the NWA and officially changed its name from Eastern Championship Wrestling to Extreme Championship Wrestling, it became an underground sensation. The group would showcase many different styles of professional wrestling, popularizing bloody hardcore wrestling matches and the 3-Way Dance. ECW was always intended to be counter-culture and a grittier alternative to multi-million dollar organizations such as World Wrestling Federation (WWF) and WCW. In addition to their hardcore match types, they provided an alternative to North American wrestling with technical wrestling that was common overseas. International stars such as Eddie Guerrero, Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko anchored a solid technical wrestling core in ECW. Rey Misterio, Jr., Psicosis, Konnan and Juventud Guerrera brought a lucha libre style rarely seen in the national wrestling promotions.
Wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, The Sandman, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, Public Enemy and The Tazmaniac were seen as being too dangerous for the multi-million dollar companies and were given a chance in ECW. They also helped launch the new ECW at this time. One of the promotion's marquee feuds was the long-standing feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which involved many ECW wrestlers over a period of two and a half years. Another was between Raven and the Sandman, which included the crucifixion angle, one of the most controversial angles in wrestling history.
The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the ECW Arena, a rundown bingo hall secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, and the whole sort of unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself. Shows were actually broadcast on a Philadelphia local cable sports station (SportsChannel America's local affiliate, Sports Channel Philadelphia) on Tuesday evenings. After Sports Channel Philadelphia went off the air in 1997, the show moved to WPPX-TV 61. It later moved to a former independent broadcast station (WGTW 48) in Philadelphia on either Friday or Saturday night at 1 or 2 a.m. Shows were also aired on the (MSG Network in NYC on Friday nights (Early Saturday morning) at 2 a.m. Due to the obscurity of the stations and ECW itself, many times expletives and violence were not edited out of these showings, helping to get ECW noticed.
After noticing ECW's growing popularity, the "Big Two" (World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation) started adopting their ideas and hiring away their talent. Paul Heyman believes that ECW was the first victim of the "Monday Night Wars" between WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night RAW. While the WWF had somewhat of a working relationship with ECW (going as far as allowing cross-promotional angles, and providing financial aid to Heyman for a considerable period of time), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name (with a few notable exceptions; including a passing remark by Raven in late 1996 and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall mentioning it as a viable second option in American wrestling in a slight on their main competition, the World Wrestling Federation), referring to it as "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" that wrestled in bingo halls during a segment directed at Diamond Dallas Page.
Vince McMahon claimed that he put Paul Heyman on the WWF's payroll as compensation for the talent (namely Tazz, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Dudley Boyz) leaving ECW for the WWF. On the other hand, Heyman believed that Eric Bischoff never compensated him for ECW bred talent such as Mikey Whipwreck, Raven, The Sandman, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Steven Richards, Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) and Chris Jericho leaving to go to WCW.
Cross-promotion
Storyline-wise, Vince McMahon first became "aware" of ECW while at the 1995 King of the Ring event in ECW's home base of Philadelphia. During the match between Mabel and Savio Vega, the crowd suddenly started to angrily chant "ECW ECW ECW" At the September 22, 1996 In Your House: Mind Games event in Philadelphia, ECW stars (The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Paul Heyman, and Taz) were in the front row with Sandman even interfering in one match (when he threw beer on Savio Vega during his strap match with Bradshaw). McMahon acknowledged ECW's status as a local, up and coming promotion on the air.
Wrestlers such as Shane Douglas, Tommy Dreamer, Raven, The Sandman, Cactus Jack, Terry Funk, Sabu, Public Enemy and The Tazmaniac were seen as being too dangerous for the multi-million dollar companies and were given a chance in ECW. They also helped launch the new ECW at this time. One of the promotion's marquee feuds was the long-standing feud between Tommy Dreamer and Raven, which involved many ECW wrestlers over a period of two and a half years. Another was between Raven and the Sandman, which included the crucifixion angle, one of the most controversial angles in wrestling history.
The bulk of ECW's shows remained at the ECW Arena, a rundown bingo hall secluded under a section of Interstate 95. Seating comprised simple folding chairs and four sets of portable bleachers, and the whole sort of unconventional set up reflected the gritty style of the wrestling itself. Shows were actually broadcast on a Philadelphia local cable sports station (SportsChannel America's local affiliate, Sports Channel Philadelphia) on Tuesday evenings. After Sports Channel Philadelphia went off the air in 1997, the show moved to WPPX-TV 61. It later moved to a former independent broadcast station (WGTW 48) in Philadelphia on either Friday or Saturday night at 1 or 2 a.m. Shows were also aired on the (MSG Network in NYC on Friday nights (Early Saturday morning) at 2 a.m. Due to the obscurity of the stations and ECW itself, many times expletives and violence were not edited out of these showings, helping to get ECW noticed.
After noticing ECW's growing popularity, the "Big Two" (World Championship Wrestling and the World Wrestling Federation) started adopting their ideas and hiring away their talent. Paul Heyman believes that ECW was the first victim of the "Monday Night Wars" between WCW Monday Nitro and Monday Night RAW. While the WWF had somewhat of a working relationship with ECW (going as far as allowing cross-promotional angles, and providing financial aid to Heyman for a considerable period of time), WCW refused to even mention ECW by name (with a few notable exceptions; including a passing remark by Raven in late 1996 and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall mentioning it as a viable second option in American wrestling in a slight on their main competition, the World Wrestling Federation), referring to it as "barbed wire city" and "a major independent promotion" that wrestled in bingo halls during a segment directed at Diamond Dallas Page.
Vince McMahon claimed that he put Paul Heyman on the WWF's payroll as compensation for the talent (namely Tazz, Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and The Dudley Boyz) leaving ECW for the WWF. On the other hand, Heyman believed that Eric Bischoff never compensated him for ECW bred talent such as Mikey Whipwreck, Raven, The Sandman, Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Steven Richards, Public Enemy (Johnny Grunge and Rocco Rock) and Chris Jericho leaving to go to WCW.
Cross-promotion
Storyline-wise, Vince McMahon first became "aware" of ECW while at the 1995 King of the Ring event in ECW's home base of Philadelphia. During the match between Mabel and Savio Vega, the crowd suddenly started to angrily chant "ECW ECW ECW" At the September 22, 1996 In Your House: Mind Games event in Philadelphia, ECW stars (The Sandman, Tommy Dreamer, Paul Heyman, and Taz) were in the front row with Sandman even interfering in one match (when he threw beer on Savio Vega during his strap match with Bradshaw). McMahon acknowledged ECW's status as a local, up and coming promotion on the air.
On February 24, 1997, ECW "invaded" Monday Night RAW from the Manhattan Center. They advanced a storyline, plugged their first ever pay-per-view and worked three matches in front of the WWF audience while Vince McMahon called the action with both Jerry "The King" Lawler and Paul Heyman.
The Manhattan Center in New York was peppered with a large number of ECW fans, who gave the WWF wrestlers "?" chants when they felt it was warranted. Likewise, when the ECW performers arrived, they popped and introduced the WWF Monday night audience to some trademark ECW group chants. It was said that this episode was the beginning of what would eventually be called The Attitude Era of the WWF.
After a series of struggles, on April 13, 1997, ECW broadcasted its first pay-per-view wrestling card, Barely Legal, highlighted by Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Title.
After a series of struggles, on April 13, 1997, ECW broadcasted its first pay-per-view wrestling card, Barely Legal, highlighted by Terry Funk winning the ECW World Heavyweight Title.
At the 1997 Wrestlepalooza event, Jerry Lawler, a noted critic of ECW made a surprise appearance at the ECW Arena. Wrestlepalooza '97 featured Raven's final ECW match before leaving for WCW. In this match, Tommy Dreamer finally beat his long time nemesis Raven. Dreamer's celebration was short-lived, though, as Jerry Lawler, along with Sabu and Rob Van Dam showed up to attack Dreamer. This set up a match between Tommy Dreamer and Jerry Lawler at the 1997 Hardcore Heaven PPV on August 17, which was won by Dreamer.
In March 2000, Mike Awesome suddenly left to join WCW even though he was still the reigning ECW World Heavyweight Champion. There were rumors that Eric Bischoff wanted to drop the ECW belt in the trash can on television, as he did with the WWF Women's title with Alundra Blayze. This led to threats of legal action from ECW, so Awesome agreed to return to ECW to drop the title to anyone - which turned out to be Tazz, who was working for the WWF at that time. This would mark the only time that a WCW contracted wrestler would wrestle against a WWF contracted wrestler at an ECW sanctioned event.
In August 1999, ECW began to broadcast nationally on TNN (for what was initially a three year contract). Despite no advertising and a low budget, ECW became TNN's highest rated show. ECW on TNN was canceled in October 2000 (with the final episode airing on October 6, 2000) in favor of WWE RAW moving to the network.
To this day, Paul Heyman strongly believes that the lack of a national television deal (especially after the TNN ordeal) was the main cause of ECW's demise.
Bankruptcy
ECW struggled for months after the cancellation, trying to secure a new national TV deal. On December 30, 2000, ECW Hardcore TV aired for the last time and Guilty as Charged 2001 was the last PPV aired on January 7, 2001. Living Dangerously was going to air on March 11, 2001, but because of financial trouble it was cancelled before March 11. Despite help from the WWF, Heyman could not get out of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy on April 4, 2001.
The company was listed as having assets totaling $1,385,500. Included in that number was $860,000 in accounts receivable owed the company by iN DEMAND Network (PPV), Acclaim (video games), and Original San Francisco Toy Company (action figures). The balance of the assets were the video tape library ($500,000), a 1998 Ford Truck ($19,500) and the remaining inventory of merchandise ($4).
To this day, Paul Heyman strongly believes that the lack of a national television deal (especially after the TNN ordeal) was the main cause of ECW's demise.
Bankruptcy
ECW struggled for months after the cancellation, trying to secure a new national TV deal. On December 30, 2000, ECW Hardcore TV aired for the last time and Guilty as Charged 2001 was the last PPV aired on January 7, 2001. Living Dangerously was going to air on March 11, 2001, but because of financial trouble it was cancelled before March 11. Despite help from the WWF, Heyman could not get out of financial trouble and filed for bankruptcy on April 4, 2001.
The company was listed as having assets totaling $1,385,500. Included in that number was $860,000 in accounts receivable owed the company by iN DEMAND Network (PPV), Acclaim (video games), and Original San Francisco Toy Company (action figures). The balance of the assets were the video tape library ($500,000), a 1998 Ford Truck ($19,500) and the remaining inventory of merchandise ($4).
The liabilities of the company totaled $8,881,435.17. The bankruptcy filing included hundreds of claims, including production companies, buildings ECW ran in, TV stations ECW was televised on, travel agencies, phone companies, attorney's fees, wrestlers, and other talent. Wrestlers and talent were listed, with amounts owed ranging from $0 for Sabu and Steve Corino to hundreds, and in some cases, thousands of dollars. The highest amounts owed to talents were Rob Van Dam ($150,000), Tommy Dreamer ($100,000), Joey Styles ($50,000), Shane Douglas ($48,000), and Francine ($47,875).
Revivals
A few months after the promotion's 2001 demise, ECW resurfaced as a stable as part of the World Wrestling Federation Invasion storyline. As a participant in the inter-promotional feud between Shane McMahon's WCW and Vince McMahon's WWF, ECW was initially "owned" by Paul Heyman and harbored no loyalty to either promotion. Soon after (on the very same night), it was revealed Stephanie McMahon was ECW's new "owner", and she would soon conspire with her brother Shane to oust their father from his leadership position in the World Wrestling Federation. With the creation of The Alliance, the inter-promotional feud shifted into an internal power struggle among the McMahon family. The defection of WWF superstars to The Alliance continued the shift as less focus was placed on WCW and ECW performers. The feud lasted six months and concluded with WWF defeating The Alliance at the 2001 Survivor Series. The WWF's victory also marked the end of the Invasion storyline, and WCW and ECW wrestlers were reintegrated into the WWF.
Documentaries
In the summer of 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in bankruptcy court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two-disc DVD entitled The Rise and Fall of ECW. The set was released in November 2004. The main feature of the DVD was a three-hour documentary on the company's history, with the other disc featuring matches from the promotion. The DVD sold well, and is currently ranked as WWE's second highest-selling DVD of all time, behind WrestleMania 21.
An unauthorized DVD called Forever Hardcore was produced by former WCW crew member Jeremy Borash in response to The Rise and Fall of ECW. The DVD had stories of wrestlers who were not employed by WWE telling their side of ECW's history.
Reunion shows
The strong sales of both The Rise and Fall of ECW and Forever Hardcore prompted both World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas to run ECW reunion shows in 2005. Douglas's first Hardcore Homecoming show was held before WWE's ECW One Night Stand and subsequently went on tour.
Lawsuits
On November 23, 1996, aspiring wrestler Eric Kulas teamed with D-Von Dudley to wrestle The Gangstas. Substituting for Axl Rotten, Kulas was beaten with various weapons and suffered a deep cut as a result of blading incident by his opponent New Jack. Kulas sued ECW and New Jack for physical and psychological damage claiming they were unaware the match was going to be a hardcore match. Furthermore, criminal charges were filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against New Jack. During the civil trial, it was revealed that Kulas and his father lied that Kulas was 19 years old instead of 17. Also, Kulas had misrepresented his wrestling experience by stating he was trained by retired wrestler Killer Kowalski. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges, however, ECW suffered long term repercussions. The lawsuit delayed the broadcast of ECW's first pay-per-view after distributors viewed video of the incident. Eric Kulas died on May 12, 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery.
Tod Gordon
In December 2005, Eastern Championship Wrestling founder Tod Gordon challenged WWE's ownership of the Eastern Championship Wrestling section of the ECW video library, claiming that the state didn't have the right to sell that section of the video library to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. He also claims that Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc. was separate from Extreme Championship Wrestling. On May 8, 2006 the case was thrown out and Gordon plans to appeal the decision. Tod Gordon is now one of the owners of Pro Wrestling Unplugged, running out of the New Alhambra Arena.
Tradition
There were several distinctive fans that were always in the front row at ECW shows. Among them were Sign Guy,Tye Dye Guy, Hat Guy (also known in the Philadelphia area as Straw Hat), Faith No More Guy, and Kato. They gained their respective nicknames because Sign Guy always had different creative signs with him, Hat Guy always wore a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt, Faith No More Guy bore an uncanny resemblance to "Big" Jim Martin, former guitarist for rock band Faith No More and Kato resembled OJ Simpson house guest Kato Kaelin. Regular patrons of ECW Arena events were given Club ECW status by the promotion and were able to reserve seats ahead of the general public. Many members of Club ECW were present at Shane Douglas's 2005 Hardcore Homecoming shows in Philadelphia, and at ECW One Night Stand.
Crowds at ECW events were well known for their rowdiness and distinctive chants that either supported or demeaned what was transpiring in the ring. ECW chants such as "You fucked up!" and "Holy shit!" became infamous during those shows, and are still used by fans in other promotions.
In ECW, there were virtually no rules. Weapons were abundant, with much blood spilled. There were referees, but their role was normally limited to counting pinfalls and acknowledging submissions, occasionally performing tag team maneuvers with a wrestler during the match, several times becoming the winner of the match themselves though not officially a part of the bout.
ECW was known for making popular several types of matches:
Revivals
A few months after the promotion's 2001 demise, ECW resurfaced as a stable as part of the World Wrestling Federation Invasion storyline. As a participant in the inter-promotional feud between Shane McMahon's WCW and Vince McMahon's WWF, ECW was initially "owned" by Paul Heyman and harbored no loyalty to either promotion. Soon after (on the very same night), it was revealed Stephanie McMahon was ECW's new "owner", and she would soon conspire with her brother Shane to oust their father from his leadership position in the World Wrestling Federation. With the creation of The Alliance, the inter-promotional feud shifted into an internal power struggle among the McMahon family. The defection of WWF superstars to The Alliance continued the shift as less focus was placed on WCW and ECW performers. The feud lasted six months and concluded with WWF defeating The Alliance at the 2001 Survivor Series. The WWF's victory also marked the end of the Invasion storyline, and WCW and ECW wrestlers were reintegrated into the WWF.
Documentaries
In the summer of 2003, WWE purchased ECW's assets in bankruptcy court, acquiring the rights to ECW's video library. They used this video library to put together a two-disc DVD entitled The Rise and Fall of ECW. The set was released in November 2004. The main feature of the DVD was a three-hour documentary on the company's history, with the other disc featuring matches from the promotion. The DVD sold well, and is currently ranked as WWE's second highest-selling DVD of all time, behind WrestleMania 21.
An unauthorized DVD called Forever Hardcore was produced by former WCW crew member Jeremy Borash in response to The Rise and Fall of ECW. The DVD had stories of wrestlers who were not employed by WWE telling their side of ECW's history.
Reunion shows
The strong sales of both The Rise and Fall of ECW and Forever Hardcore prompted both World Wrestling Entertainment and Shane Douglas to run ECW reunion shows in 2005. Douglas's first Hardcore Homecoming show was held before WWE's ECW One Night Stand and subsequently went on tour.
Lawsuits
On November 23, 1996, aspiring wrestler Eric Kulas teamed with D-Von Dudley to wrestle The Gangstas. Substituting for Axl Rotten, Kulas was beaten with various weapons and suffered a deep cut as a result of blading incident by his opponent New Jack. Kulas sued ECW and New Jack for physical and psychological damage claiming they were unaware the match was going to be a hardcore match. Furthermore, criminal charges were filed by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts against New Jack. During the civil trial, it was revealed that Kulas and his father lied that Kulas was 19 years old instead of 17. Also, Kulas had misrepresented his wrestling experience by stating he was trained by retired wrestler Killer Kowalski. In the end, ECW and New Jack were acquitted of the charges, however, ECW suffered long term repercussions. The lawsuit delayed the broadcast of ECW's first pay-per-view after distributors viewed video of the incident. Eric Kulas died on May 12, 2002 at the age of 22 due to complications from gastric bypass surgery.
Tod Gordon
In December 2005, Eastern Championship Wrestling founder Tod Gordon challenged WWE's ownership of the Eastern Championship Wrestling section of the ECW video library, claiming that the state didn't have the right to sell that section of the video library to Vince McMahon and World Wrestling Entertainment. He also claims that Eastern Championship Wrestling, Inc. was separate from Extreme Championship Wrestling. On May 8, 2006 the case was thrown out and Gordon plans to appeal the decision. Tod Gordon is now one of the owners of Pro Wrestling Unplugged, running out of the New Alhambra Arena.
Tradition
There were several distinctive fans that were always in the front row at ECW shows. Among them were Sign Guy,Tye Dye Guy, Hat Guy (also known in the Philadelphia area as Straw Hat), Faith No More Guy, and Kato. They gained their respective nicknames because Sign Guy always had different creative signs with him, Hat Guy always wore a straw hat and Hawaiian shirt, Faith No More Guy bore an uncanny resemblance to "Big" Jim Martin, former guitarist for rock band Faith No More and Kato resembled OJ Simpson house guest Kato Kaelin. Regular patrons of ECW Arena events were given Club ECW status by the promotion and were able to reserve seats ahead of the general public. Many members of Club ECW were present at Shane Douglas's 2005 Hardcore Homecoming shows in Philadelphia, and at ECW One Night Stand.
Crowds at ECW events were well known for their rowdiness and distinctive chants that either supported or demeaned what was transpiring in the ring. ECW chants such as "You fucked up!" and "Holy shit!" became infamous during those shows, and are still used by fans in other promotions.
In ECW, there were virtually no rules. Weapons were abundant, with much blood spilled. There were referees, but their role was normally limited to counting pinfalls and acknowledging submissions, occasionally performing tag team maneuvers with a wrestler during the match, several times becoming the winner of the match themselves though not officially a part of the bout.
ECW was known for making popular several types of matches:
ECW was also infamous for regularly holding "Bring Your Own Weapon Nights" at the ECW Arena in the early days of the promotion. Fans were encouraged to bring their own weapons to give to wrestlers, as fighting in the crowd was a staple of ECW matches. A dollar store located next to the ECW Arena often supplied the bulk of the weapons, with fans purchasing them while they waited in line for each show. Memorable weapons included crutches, a large piece of cardboard with the words "Use Me!" handwritten on it but actually concealing a full-sized Stop sign, a two-man kayak, a Leonard Cohen vinyl record, a VCR (with remote), and a Nintendo Entertainment System. An accident actually helped put an end to Bring Your Own Weapon Night when wrestler Cactus Jack, believing the weapon he was holding to be an inexpensive aluminum pan, swung the object full force into The Sandman's head. When he heard the resulting "clang" noise, he realized the object was in fact a cast-iron skillet, and The Sandman's resulting injury put him out of action for two weeks.
Also, WWE promoted the ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV with the "ECW Rules Match", with the same rules as a No DQ match or Street Fight but was regularly contested between former ECW wrestlers, most notably Chris Benoit and Tajiri.
Also, WWE promoted the ECW One Night Stand 2005 PPV with the "ECW Rules Match", with the same rules as a No DQ match or Street Fight but was regularly contested between former ECW wrestlers, most notably Chris Benoit and Tajiri.
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